There Is Plenty To Keep Divers Busy At Annual Reef Sweep

POMPANO BEACH — Anchored to a dock, Miss Conduct swayed in the murky Intracoastal Waterway as Daniel Barrett and David Butcher hauled a 500-pound tangle of rope from her deck.

The two Pompano Beach residents, along with four other divers had taken Miss Conduct, a 25-foot private boat, to the Hillsboro Inlet near Pompano Beach on Saturday for the Ocean Watch Foundation's 10th annual Reef Sweep & Beach Cleanup.

Barrett said there was less litter than in previous years, but he saw more tumbleweed-sized meshes of rope and filament that ensnare marine habitat as they are pushed along the ocean floor by stormy waters.

``The reefs themselves are relatively cleaner,'' said Barrett, who has participated in the cleanup the past five years. ``But you find more of the bigger stuff that's more destructive. They're what trap manatees and sea turtles.''

Ocean Watch, a Fort Lauderdale environmental group, initiated the reef sweep to raise money to buy 10 mooring buoys and place them off the shore of Dania. Since then, the group has installed about 90 more buoys along the Broward County coast so boaters can tie their lines to the buoys rather than throwing anchors on the fragile reefs.

On Saturday, divers in Broward County collected more than 1,369 pound of debris from the ocean floor, including 10,577 feet of rope and 11,014 feet of fishing line. About 12 boats launched from various Broward County shores for the effort.

D. J. Meeks, co-founder of Ocean Watch, said the organization does more than install buoys. Its members teach marine life awareness at schools, civic gatherings and wherever its members are invited to speak. A greater respect for the marine ecosystem has been spawned from the group's efforts, Meeks said.

``When we did our first sweep we had less than 50 divers,'' Meeks said. ``They found trash everywhere and now when divers go to reefs, they have a harder time finding trash. It's a good sign that divers are picking up trash routinely and there is a higher conscious about the fact that there are reefs right off of our shores.''

Still, typical trash items were found by the reefs. Diver Tina Jenkins said she ``filled up a whole mesh bag with nothing but beer cans.'' Other items included fishing buckets and empty bleach bottles.

A lot more remains, said Barrett, who saw an entanglement of rope and filament as big as Miss Conduct's body on the ocean floor.

No amount of human effort could possibly hoist it out, and there's not enough of a commercial effort to pay for heavy machinery to remove it, he said.

``You can tell someone about it but there's no funds set aside,'' Barrett said.

``It's a very expensive task, you would need a barge and a crane to get it out.''

The divers who spent their Saturday off the South Florida coast saw more than trash. They saw a green moray eel, a yellow stingray, several angelfish, parrotfish, grunts and a large school of jacks.

``It's experiences like those that turn you into an environmentalist,'' said Ron Ablazey of Boynton Beach, who, with his fiancee, Cyndi Mitchell, spent four hours gathering garbage around the coral reef lining south Palm Beach County, near the Boca Raton Inlet.